AustLit

'Fiction is fantasy – or, at least, popular fiction is preoccupied with the fantastical. Wish fulfilment. A life less ordinary. Some sort of magic to free us from the prison of the mundane. A shape-shifting wizard/cat with markings mimicking her spectacles. The announcement of a new and exciting identity for the first-person hero – I, me, myself – a being somehow cognate with the reader who experiences life vicariously through the authorial magic trick of vivifying a fictitious character. Hey, presto: “You’re a wizard, Harry!”'  (Introduction)

'Seams of Repair is a captivating collection of lineated poetry and prose poetry that write into ‘the lacuna that grief brings’ (‘Residue’). Dedicated to Stephanie Green’s grandmother, ‘who understood why words matter’, Seams of Repair provides a lyrical lexicon of intimacies, giving priority to the demotic and quotidian in impressive moments of sehnsucht. The collection’s focus on the interplay and unfolding of language demonstrates Green’s passion for quiet nuance and striking visual imagery in stark expressions of desire and absence. '  (Introduction)

'Tasmanian poet Esther Ottaway’s latest collection is brave, experimental and brimming with power and artistry. Her poems reveal the truth of her own autistic experience but also the embodied experiences of a multitude of undiagnosed women and girls who are neurodivergent.'  (Introduction)

'Australian poet, dancer, actor and filmmaker, Richard James Allen’s most recent work transports the reader through a disorienting and disturbing but also fascinating afterlife encounter.'  (Introduction)